Tuam historian and campaigner Catherine Corless has said there is both “relief” and “regret” following the announcement of pre-excavation work beginning on the site of the former mother and baby home in the Co Galway town.
The full excavation of the site will begin after the initial works, which will begin on Monday, June 16, are completed.
In 2014, work carried out by Ms Corless revealed that up to 796 babies were likely buried in a makeshift crypt at the site.
Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), said families with relatives who were in the Co Galway institution have already been informed of the timeline of work.
He said they will have an opportunity to view the site works as part of a family and survivors’ day in the coming weeks.
The excavation is part of efforts to try to identify the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961.
ODAIT has been encouraging survivors and family members to visit the site before excavation starts on Monday, as the site will be under forensic control and cannot be open to the public once work begins.
Mr MacSweeney said: “From the start of works on June 16, the entire site, including the memorial garden, will be accessible only to staff carrying out the works and 24-hour security monitoring will be in place.
“The initial four weeks will involve setting up the site, including the installation of 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter.
“These measures are necessary to ensure the site’s forensic integrity and to enable us to carry out the works to the highest international standards that govern the excavation and recovery programme.
“This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation.”
It is expected the work will take approximately two years to complete.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Corless said there is a sense of “relief” following the announcement of the excavation’s start date.
“It is a relief for me,” she said. “It’s two years now since they actually said the excavation was going to happen and Daniel MacSweeney came on board. I knew it was in safe hands and that it has come to this is a huge relief.”
Ms Corless said Mr MacSweeney had been proactive in keeping her, the families, survivors and residents informed and up-to-date since the work of the ODAIT began in May 2023.
“I didn’t realise it was going to take him two years to set it all up, but I can understand now all he had to do and everything that was involved. So, it is a huge relief for me.”
But Ms Corless said there is still some “regret” over the process not getting underway sooner.
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was established by the Government in 2015 and its final report was published six years later in 2021.
“I do regret – a good bit – that it wasn’t done back in 2017 when they found that there were the home babies. The moral issue never came up that 796 babies and children were missing, and I expected at the time for the church to come on board, but what happened was pure silence,” Ms Corless said.
“I regret that it took from 2017 up to now to get the act together and do the proper thing.”
She credited the former Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman for taking the concerns of those involved on board.
“He was really, really helpful to us. He came to Tuam twice and he met families and survivors. I spoke to him a lot, he always kept in touch. So, no doubt, he did have a good hand in bringing it to this.”
With the excavation process getting underway on June 16 expected to take up to two years, Ms Corless said it will be “awkward” for local residents but credited Mr MacSweeney and the ODAIT for engaging with them.
“The residents went in there not knowing about this burial place at all and not knowing who they were. I’m sure it was a shock for them. And of course, many of them didn’t like the idea of buried children out in their own backyards.
“Most of them are cooperative and most of them understand. Daniel had a very good way with them, because he communicated with them constantly. He listened to them, and I think that meant a lot to them.
“He isn’t just floating in there to just go ahead with things. He brought them into absolutely everything that he was doing.”
Ms Corless expressed her thanks to members of the public who helped in the campaign for justice.
“I do want to thank the decent people of Ireland who came to the site and had vigils. They did so much over the years to highlight the cause by just coming and having candlelit vigils.
“People came in with different ideas of how to get the story out there and we are very, very grateful for that.”